Bourbon - Hangover!

[guzie]

When is this "bourbon hangover over"?

I have read numerous posts about - bourbon, rankings, pr, scraper site, fix not a fix, update, canonicalization, etc...etc.......etc........

When can we expect things back to nomal so I can continue SEO of my webiste without fearing "more updates etc.... to come"....

Our site went from good rankings to almost nothing since 5-23-05.
We know only get good traffic from yahoo, msn and other less known S.E.

Does anyone have a clue as to when this will be over?
Thanks for anyone how has the time to answer.
Paul Guzman

:eek:

[critter]

When is this "bourbon hangover over"?

I have read numerous posts about - bourbon, rankings, pr, scraper site, fix not a fix, update, canonicalization, etc...etc.......etc........

When can we expect things back to nomal so I can continue SEO of my webiste without fearing "more updates etc.... to come"....

Our site went from good rankings to almost nothing since 5-23-05.
We know only get good traffic from yahoo, msn and other less known S.E.

Does anyone have a clue as to when this will be over?
Thanks for anyone how has the time to answer.
Paul Guzman

:eek:

To Be Honest I have only seen positive change in my clients rankings since this update and that has been the trend with our SEO Strategies in the past.

We find if you work for today, tomorrow will come and bite you, but if you think about tomorrow and where 'search' is moving towards, your rankings should only get better and one should only reap the benefit of algo changes aimed at creating better, more relevant search.

Cheers

Critter

[Marketing Guy]

When can we expect things back to nomal so I can continue SEO of my webiste without fearing "more updates etc.... to come"....

Updates and changes have been part and parcel of the SEO industry for years and should be part of your overall SEO strategy as Critter says.

MG

[St0n3y]

Bottom line, Bourbon may be over soon, but the updates are NEVER over.

[guzie]

Thanks for your replies Marketing guy and critter.

Our site went from good google ranking to almost nil.
Except for one page that is still number 1 for specific keywords.
"Results 1 - 10 of about 2,020,000"
Can anyone explain?

We still get decent traffic from yahoo msn and other smaller s.e.
but I optimized the site for google.

Also our pr rating is a 3 using www in front our url.
But it is a "0" without the www. However the rest of the webpages
are pr 2 or 3 without the www. This is strange, and if someone could explain please do so.

I try my best to follow the "rules" no tricks, keyword stuffing, link farms, etc...

I keep hoping this bourbon update will soon be over and our website will be back to its original rankings.

And if NOT fine just tell me where and what needs to be fixed.
Not sure if I can post URL here so I have left it out.

Thanks for YOUR time
Paul Guzman

[Marketing Guy]

Could be a number of things. Could be that you did nothing wrong, just a whole load of competition entered the market at the same time (or left the Sandbox at the same time).

You don't have many inbound links, so conceivably people could have used your site (and keyword targeting) to base their own site on. With the last Google update, many people found themselves out of the sandbox, so it could be your competitors did as well.

Working on adding more content and building up your inbound links.

MG

[critter]

Thanks for your replies Marketing guy and critter.

Our site went from good google ranking to almost nil.
Except for one page that is still number 1 for specific keywords.
"Results 1 - 10 of about 2,020,000"
Can anyone explain?

We still get decent traffic from yahoo msn and other smaller s.e.
but I optimized the site for google.

Also our pr rating is a 3 using www in front our url.
But it is a "0" without the www. However the rest of the webpages
are pr 2 or 3 without the www. This is strange, and if someone could explain please do so.

I try my best to follow the "rules" no tricks, keyword stuffing, link farms, etc...

I keep hoping this bourbon update will soon be over and our website will be back to its original rankings.

And if NOT fine just tell me where and what needs to be fixed.
Not sure if I can post URL here so I have left it out.

Thanks for YOUR time
Paul Guzman
I highly doubt the 'bourbon' update itself is the SOLE cause for your loss of rankings. In my experience, after you have optimized for Google, it is a continuous battle to stay at the top until Google deems you as an Authority in the field. Until this happens constant link and content building is necessary or your rankings will drop even more. Remember, your competition is working daily in achieving #1 rank! If you don't continue with your monthly SEO efforts, your competition will catch you, and when an update like this comes about, your rankings will sputter even more!

Remember, think about the future of search when optimizing a site and updates such as the 'bourbon' will only give your site a boost up!

Cheers

Critter

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

I keep hoping this bourbon update will soon be over and our website will be back to its original rankings.

Thats not really how updates work. They are never "over" - they are "done". It is very unlikely that the changes you've seen in the latest update will be dropped and the index reverted to what it was before. Thats just not how it works.

Instead, you should prepare yourself for yet another update, and then yet another one. It won't stop. And as others have pointed out this is in fact how SEO has always been. That is the game :)

[PhilC]

If Google's history of significant updates is anything to go by, this one will continue for a while, and it may be a mistake to react too quickly to it.

Florida followed by Austin are the most infamous ones. They caused many sites to drop out of the top 1000 altogether, but as the update tweaks continued for quite a while afterwards, many or most of the dropped sites gradually returned to roughly where they were before.

There's no reason yet to suppose that this one will be any different, although it may be. Personally, I'm hoping for similar tweaks because I've dropped so significantly that a major part of my income has been decimated. Florida/Austin did the same thing but I was eventually tweaked back to where I was before - where I've been ever since Google was launched, except for the first thoes of a significant update.

The problem that Google has is that relevancy tends to deteriorate with these updates. For terms that I watch, they never got back to the relevancy that they had before Florida, and this update hasn't helped. The effect of it looks more like a shuffle to me than an improvement. I'm not moaning because I dropped from #1 to the 3rd page, because I expect to be back. I'm observing that several pages that have nothing to do with the searchterm are in the top 10 for it, and have been since Florida, so that relevancy deteriorated with Florida, and hasn't improved this time.

[guzie]

Thanks for your reply.

Sometime in January-05 we had a similiar problem. We dropped off the rankings, but it only lasted about 2 weeks. Then we were right back at the top ten. I did NOT do any changes just waited!

Since then I added more pages with original content and some pages that were almost all affiliate links. Didn't take long for these new pages to get indexed and get good rankings.

Life was "good" :D I was sheting in tall cotton.

Then all of a sudden whamo "Bourbon"! Back to the gutter!

Does anyone know when it will offcially or unoffcially be over?
I will continue with my SEO efforts but concentrate on yahoo and other s.e.'s

Thanks for your time
Paul Guzman

[PhilC]

My understanding is that there were 3½ algo changes to do, and that we are in the last ½ - whatever a half is. That's when it will be "done" - sometime around now. But then they'll need to examine the results and tweak things. It took them a couple of months to stop tweaking Florida/Austin, but they were much more dramatic changes.

[guzie]

Instead, you should prepare yourself for yet another update, and then yet another one. It won't stop. And as others have pointed out this is in fact how SEO has always been. That is the game
Mikkel I do not see myself spending time optimizing, optimizing and optimizing again! Jeez I have a full time job family and other interest. I really do NOT like this game it takes me away from my family, friends and even my full time job. Which is what I really like to do, helping others enjoy gardening in general.

Looks like my other option is to optimize for yahoo and other smaller S.E.s
This way I will spend less time worrying about google ;)

Anyway thanks for your info Mikkel - I get this warm fuzzy feeling corresponding from someone so far away!

Thanks for YOUR time Paul Guzman

[St0n3y]

There is always the option of hiring a profoessional firm. I'm like you, I don't like to spend time doing things I'm not particularly skilled at (changine the oil, fixing leaky pipes, pouring concrete, etc.). I happily hire people to do these jobs for me so I can spend more time with the fam. ;)